Instrument Repair

[HobbswheresCalvin]

O one more thing. when filling the nut slots of they are to low. Besides the super glue. I have 2 other things i add,

I mix up ultra fine graphite with either bone dust or corn starch. The graphite helps the string.not stick in the superglue.

See after it dries it tends to still be a bit softer then the surrounding bone or plastic. So strings "sink" into it and get stuck. Bone dust or corn starch adds to this stability.

I also always graphite my slots

[HobbswheresCalvin]

Also the super glue to get , as it is mucb thinner and will wick into the tiniest of places is the red labeled brand of hot stuff, all parts carries it. Tho i do believe you can order ot directly from the company. Muuuucb better then simple krazy glue

[Structo]

I didn't read your fret leveling post real carefully but I didn't see where you said to get the neck perfectly flat before leveling.

If your neck has a bow or back bow and you try to level the frets you will end up damaging the frets that are higher then the middle of the neck.

[HobbswheresCalvin]

hmm. i thought i had put that in there. its hard to describe how. but basically

taking the neck off, or letting it relax on its own with no support, place the straight edge on top of the neck. follow the path of the strings one at a time.
more often then not there will be alot of inconsistency from bass side to treble side. try to find a happy medium of straightness. explaining the happy medium idea is very difficult it takes much trial and error.

from there i use a sharpie to mark out the frets that touch the straightedge as i work the different string paths. those sharpy marks will be taken down only. so that frets that are not sharpied are not touched with the different sized blocks.

hope that helps.

like i said fretleveling is a different subject entirely and there are so many techniques that go into doing it correctly. one technique that i never will use is using a bastard file to take down fret heights. i had a boss explain this as his way of doing fretmills because it worked faster (also cause the need for a refret sooner) but when i showed him on a level surface that his file was not flat and that he was doing moroe harm then good. his opinion changed.

[cbass]

Very useful info. I use a lot of the same techniques you do but I am by no means a pro.I think i get pretty good results though.

[HobbswheresCalvin]

awesome man, ya this is just a post to help see guidelines, getting close to perfection is alot better then not, and knowing when your guitar is out of adjustment helps too, just as with amps

[tonewood]

I suck at neck adjustments and want to be able to take off the fret edges on some of my cheap guitars.

Mark

Hey Mark-
I may have missed it but I didn't see a reply to the fret edge question.
For the fret "corners" that snag my fingers, I use a very small triangular file with the pointy edges ground slightly so they don't cut into the fingerboard.
The stroke technique is something like this: http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Speci ... eo#details

If the fingerboard shrank a lot and the fret ends are sticking out a flat mill file works.

In all cases when filing fret ends, make sure you are working in a direction that is pushing the fret end into the fingerboard not out of the board!

[M Fowler]

Tonewood,

Thanks for the info, and that is why I didn't reply for info because I got to thinking I didn't have the correct files when I tried doing this before.

I'll get some guitar tools ordered.

Mark

[HobbswheresCalvin]

OOO i did miss that, the order of the steps i take for that is to take down the sides perpendicular to the edge of the fretboard with a smooth bastard file (Nicholson). somewhere around the 7" size for guitar, up to 12" on basses, then after the frets is flush. i use the same bastard file to put in the range of 22 degrees of bevel into those frets so that the edges have clearance from the hand, 22 degrees is a relative number, tho i strive for this on well made instruments. some of the lower ends will have way more bevel. try and fix this without it looking to obvious. remember that with repair work, you strive to be as seemless as possible, having your work look as if it was supposed to be that way.

next after the bevel i take a small block, one of the ones used for fretleveling, in the 6" range, with grit in the 320-600 range, my 320 block is like 600 because i not change them often. following the beveling. smooth out all of the bastard file marks.

after this take the small triangle file he was talking about. i have modified mine, this is important for guitars that have very clean fretboards, as the edge of a triangle file will scar fretboards. on one edge, not the flat side but the edge. completely remove the file aspect on a disk sander. this takes practice. you may end up with a file with 3 different sizes. try to do it in the most minor way possible. taking a small sanding block might do the trick.

with that file. flat edge down, strings off, running slightly off parallel to the fretwire, roll over the fret as you push forward. the file only works in one direction so make sure you do this, from point of view over the fretboard. not from off the fretboard up. you risk pulling the fret up and the marks dont blend as well.

so again roll from the fretboard over the fretboard edge to blend the small horseshoe area of the fret. do one side then the other. you need to become ambidextrous for this to make it look seamless.

after this its polishing time, 1000 grit to 2500 should do the trick. use steel wool sparingly because it gets caught under frets. possibly pulling them up. and its a pain to clean up.
plus you do not want it on your pickups. as you amp gurus know. steel wool is not good for electronics.

sorry for missing that

[HobbswheresCalvin]

i do have that fret dressing tool as well. i just aquired one this year. works well. i would say it is a good investment. it also has more uses as im sure you could probably find out. works great for tight shaping of nuts and cleaning up file makes on things as the teeth count on that is alot better